[VIDEO & PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] NYS Senator Eric Adams held a press conference with Jewish & Muslim groups in Manhattan, Sunday morning, to protest the budget cuts headed to Medical Examiners across the state.
Access to the Medical Examiner is of the utmost importance to those who follow the Jewish and Muslim faiths, as burials must occur within 24 hours of an individual’s passing. Current budget proposals are calling for a substantial decrease in staff and resources. Without the available staff, the ability to uphold religious tenets would become difficult, and service would be impacted not just for those religious communities, but for all New Yorkers.
Senator Adams states: “It is troubling to me that Albany would play politics with the religious practices of others. While I understand all too well the fiscal issues that New York State is currently facing, it is abhorrent to balance the budget on the backs of those who rely on the Medical Examiner during vulnerable periods, such as the passing on of loved ones.”
NYC Councilman David Greenfield who was unable to attend the press conference told YWN: “I am very concerned about proposed cuts to the Medical Examiner’s budget. Tomorrow, in a meeting of the City Council’s Health Committee, my colleagues and I will hear testimony from the Chief Medical Examiner about the impact these cuts will have on response times. I plan on using the opportunity to highlight the impact that will have on the religious communities throughout New York. It is my hope that we can balance this city’s budget while also balancing the needs of the living and the dignity of the deceased.”
Those who addressed the gathering, which was held outside the headquarters of the NYC Medical Examiner were NYS Assemblyman David Weprin, Rabbi Yanky Meyer of Misaskim, Rabbi Elchonon Zone of the Vaad Horabbonim of Queens, Rabbi Zvi Gluck of Chesed Shel Emes, and a representative of the Muslim Community.
PHOTO LINK: Click HERE for photos by Hillel Engel.
Click HERE to watch this video from a mobile device.
(Dov Gordon – YWN)
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11 Responses
What taxes are we willing to raise in order to pay for the extra medical examiners?
charlie: We’ll just eliminate funding for WNYC and public broadcasting.
Charlie — How about eliminating fraud in the state run WIC, foodstamps, SCHIP, medicaid, section 8, etc. programs to start? When someone’s relative dies, they have no choice but to wait for the medical examiners office to release the body, which means that kevurah must be delayed. Being as government is responsible for ensuring the public safety, which involves determining that crimes are discovered, and that no one can opt out of this (rightfully so), setting up cuts that would prevent large numbers of people from burying their loved ones in accordance with their religion seems unreasonable. (I am also against cutting funding for fire fighters and police men for the most part. Why do we try to cut the few areas that government actually has a right/ responsibility to do?) There is no one else to serve this role except government, and it is an appropriate use of government money.
Grandmaster’s comment shows why we have fiscal trouble. Everyone wants their programs they benefit from to be funded and wants the programs of *others* to be cut. In this we Jews are no different from everyone else. Those who advocate increased services should advocate higher taxes on their *own* communities, or reduction in *other* programs that benefit those communities.
For the record, the total amount of government grants received by New York Public Radio for 2010 was $493,774.
How about cutting some six figure administrative assistant to some commissioner who does not do much
Anyone who has observed City or State offices on the inside well knows there is a LOT of non-performance in many offices. I myself saw this in the palmy days of John Lindsay. So who wants to be a mensch and start calling out this form of theft? Mpre Obamacare style of “thinking”, the way of Cuomo and Bloomberg.
Charlie, this isn’t our “own” program, it is the liberal bureacracy that needs these programs. I’m fine if the state cuts the budget of the Medical Examiners office along with the bureacracy. If you want bureacracy, you must provide adequate service.
In addition, Mr. Hall, taxes are made to be used for services. Distribution of wealth isn’t a service – it is a welfare program. Delaying ones burial for days is a disservice. If an investigation is required, it should be done swiftly with our tax money to good use.
“How about eliminating fraud in the state run WIC, foodstamps, SCHIP, medicaid, section 8, etc. programs to start?”
Everyone talks about eliminating fraud. And in fact, fraud is actively and aggressively investigated. When I served on a federal grand jury last fall, one of the indictments we handed down was for someone alleged to have hidden assets while applying for federal housing benefits.
The fact is, the amount of actual fraud by individuals is usually quite small. And voters don’t care about it. The largest health care fraud ever perpetrated on the government was a six hundred million dollar Medicare fraud perpetrated by Columbia/HCA. That was only 1/3 of 1% of the entire Medicare budget at the time. And the perpetrator of the fraud is now the governor of Florida, proving my point that voters don’t care.
“When someone’s relative dies, they have no choice but to wait for the medical examiners office to release the body, which means that kevurah must be delayed. ”
From the perspective of overall society, there is no rush to release a body for a funeral. If we want fast turnaround, we should volunteer to pay. Perhaps the frum community could join with the Muslim community to raise the money to provide extra staffing in the medical examiners’ office? The article does not mention how much money we are talking about to achieve the necessary staffing; does anyone know?
“I am also against cutting funding for fire fighters and police men for the most part. Why do we try to cut the few areas that government actually has a right/ responsibility to do?”
Cuts to public safety have been proven to be the most stupid kinds of cuts. It has been proven that the disaster area that the South Bronx became in the 1970s was directly preceded by cuts to public safety. There weren’t really significantly more arson fires in the South Bronx than in other poor areas, but because the area had been targeted for budget cuts, fires were able to rage out of control because FDNY didn’t have enough staff to put them out in a timely manner. The Bronx still hasn’t recovered. And violent crime in NYC began to fall when Mayor Dinkins raised property taxes in order to allow NYPD to go on a hiring spree so that it could flood crime prone areas with police officers under Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The pensions are the big problem, they have to be reformed and anyone who argues about that is simply not living in reality. The NYS pension fund is projecting 7.5% returns in the future. This is absolutely impossible considering that yields on the ten year treasury bond is 3.4%. I would bet my entire life savings, that there is no way the NYS pension fund will return 7.5% annually in the coming decade. Retirement age must be increased, as people live longer they must increase when these people can retire, anyone who does not understand that, does not understand basic logic.
charlie – Perhaps rather than just “fraud” I should have said “fraud and waste”. I’m not sure how you can say “the amount of actual fraud by individuals is quite small” I would assume that most fraud by individuals is never discovered. I had a personal experience years ago. When I was in graduate school and was expecting it was suggested to me that I may qualify for WIC, as my income was not so high. I went into a WIC office to find out, and it turned out I made too much to be eligible. The WIC EMPLOYEE (this was not a Jewish office, don’t worry!) tried to convince me to list an additional family member as living in my home so that I would qualify! When I politely smiled and said “no one else lives in my home” (after her asking a few times “are you sure you don’t have an uncle or sister who stays with you frequently?”), she smiled back and said “it’s not like anyone is ever going to come to your house to count”. Perhaps this branch was the exception, but I’m not so optimistic. . .
That being said, it’s really not the point. The medical examiner’s office serves a role in providing the services government is supposed to provide (public safety). I could not find numbers, only that about 1/4 of the budget is being cut, and 181 out of 600 examiners being laid off. All the programs I mentioned are welfare programs, and actually do benefit our community. However from an intellectually honest point of view, it is hard to say that government has an absolute responsibility to provide these services. If I would turn your proposal around and say why don’t we let local religious and civic groups raise money to help the poor (much more logical then saying they should raise money to fund the medical examiners office), I doubt you would find that satisfactory.
Additionally, can you imagine a politician proposing to cut a quarter of the budget of even one of the programs I mentioned? You yourself pointed out that $600 million was only 1/3 of 1% of the medicare budget in Columbia at the time of that fraud. Do the math and figure out what the total budget was, and then tell me that cutting from the medical examiner budget is what we need to solve our fiscal crisis!
BTW I was not against the cutting of various day care and after school program vouchers that definitely serviced the frum community, and I agreed with the recent clean up of Early Intervention even as my own child had his therapy cut back as a result. I don’t think this is about “Everyone wants their programs they benefit from to be funded and wants the programs of *others* to be cut.” Many of us have real ideas about the role of government, and are consistent in that regard whether or not the program helps our community. (And to class the Medical Examiners office as “our program” seems a bit disingenuous!)
Finally, although it is Jews and Muslims whose religious requirements are affected, I believe even from the perspective of society at large it is reasonable to expect not to have to wait days to receive the body of a loved one for whatever ceremonies one is conducting.
The best City in the world in NOT NY! It is Yerushalayim. As a frum Jew, he should know better.